Mel Giedroyc reveals the secrets of Bake Off - Telegraph Great British Bake Off Mel Giedroyc reveals the secrets of Bake Off Mel on....why Mary Berry should be Prime Minister (and definitely not Nigel Farage), what Sue Perkins watches while filming, and when contestants turn into divas Mel Giedroyc at home Photo: Andrew Crowley/The Telegraph Comments Mel Giedroyc never thought that The Great British Bake Off would be a hit – a bunch of fake flowers in her kitchen is testament to the fact. “I nicked them from the Bake Off set, series one. They’re really good ones, they’re worth £600,” says Giedroyc, pointing to the high shelf where the vase sits. “The props man knew that I loved them, and on the last day, he presented me with them. I thought, ‘Listen, this show’s never going to go again. No one’s going to notice.’ So I half-inched them.” That was four years ago. Not only did Bake Off go again, but it became a massive hit, transferring from BBC Two to BBC One and triumphing as the highest-rated TV show of 2014.

Its kitchen controversies – such as contestant Ruby Tandoh’s abuse on Twitter in 2013, and last year’s “Bingate” when Iain Watters threw his Baked Alaska away in a huff – have gripped the nation. Giedroyc acknowledges that its ratings might one day fall – “It could well do a soufflé” – but there are no signs of that yet. For series six, which will start filming this spring and start airing from August, Giedroyc is already planning activities for lulls in the filming. “We’ve watched Mad Men, the box set. This year I’m going to bring The Prisoner,” she says. “And Sue Perkins and I have started knitting quite a lot. My plan is to knit a whole jumper.” As the show’s co-presenters, says Giedroyc, she and Perkins are there to support and encourage the bakers – even the few who let the telly go to their heads. “When they get beyond episode three, somebody will turn into a diva,” she says. “Usually only one.

I’m sure it’s due to stress, in the main, and not due to just being horrid people.” Related Articles 10 Feb 2013 Giedroyc won’t name names, but she does have a tale to tell. “I was sitting in the loo once, and I heard a baker – who shall remain nameless – speak in a very high-handed manner to the lady of the house, demanding that she cook her an omelette in a special way. This is the lady on whose land we are filming. And I thought, ‘Ooh, hello, you’ve turned.’” But, adds Giedroyc, the divas don’t tend to last long. “Their baking goes downhill. They become too focused on moi, moi, moi.” By contrast, she has high praise for last year’s surprise winner, Nancy Birtwhistle (“the right winner – a gorgeous, quality individual”) and the surprise runner-up, Richard Burr (“I felt for him, a lovely bloke”).

Mel and Sue on the hugely popular Great British Bake Off (BBC) And she is fascinated by the suggestion – whispered to me privately last year by a senior BBC executive – that in fact Bake Off makes a silent feminist statement, because all three prominent on-screen women - Mel, Sue and Mary Berry - literally wear the trousers. “That is extraordinary. That’s great,” says Giedroyc, pausing to contemplate for a moment. “I think it says a lot about the show, actually. And we all wear jeans as well – there’s a slightly frontier, cowboy element. Bezza loves a jean. Sue and I, it’s out of sheer laziness, and the styling budget is very low. I don’t think we’re making any conscious political feminist statement with that, but I like the idea that it’s subconscious. Frontiers-women. I like that.” Giedroyc and Perkins’s double act – known universally as “Mel and Sue” – first fronted girl-power TV in 1997, with their Channel 4 daytime show Light Lunch.

They had met at Cambridge University and have remained, says Giedroyc, firm friends ever since – even, she protests, when Perkins’s solo career was going much better than her own. Mel Giedroyc with her husband, Ben Morris, and daughters Florence and Vita (The Picture Library Ltd) Giedroyc met her husband, the TV director Ben Morris, in 2000, and they had their first daughter, Florence, in 2002. Another baby, Vita, followed in 2004, keeping Giedroyc busy at home – and leaving her to watch Perkins flourish on BBC TV, with her Supersizers partner Giles Coren. Giedroyc, meanwhile, had hit such a rocky career patch that she had to sell her big house. (“When you’ve had a baby in showbiz, people think you’ve died,” she said afterwards.) That must, surely, have driven a wedge between her and Perkins? “I wish I could say for the story that it did. But I was genuinely pleased for her,” says Giedroyc.

“I think if it had happened in our 20s, when you’re very conscious of what your peers are doing, and it matters to you desperately… I think because it was in our 30s… We’re quite grown up people, actually. Well, part of us is. Part of us is still 17 and messing about like idiots.” Today, Giedroyc is 46 and her family live in a little house on a slowly gentrifying Edwardian-looking terrace in Ealing. She describes her thrifty husband as “Military Dad”, who “collects pieces of string, ties them up, and reuses them”, and who drives an ancient yellow Renault 4. Her kitchen is exactly the one that Bake Off viewers would want her to have: country-style units painted Farrow & Ball Chappell Green, an Aga with laundry drying above it on a rack, Radio 4 playing the whole time, and a 15-year-old Miele washing machine which, at one point, goes into spin cycle. “It’s never let us down, I love it,” says Giedroyc. As Giedroyc talks, there’s no sense of the brittle undercurrent that runs through so many celebrity interviews.

She seems just like you see her on the telly, with no side or ego. She’s sitting at her long kitchen table, sipping Clipper fair-trade decaf coffee, and worrying out loud about Green Party leader Natalie Bennett’s car-crash radio interview. “In a way, I like the honesty of it, actually, because you get so many bland, media-trained politicians. I like it when people mess up – I just hope it wasn’t too much of a gaffe.” Giedroyc readily says that, going into the general election, she is a Green Party supporter. “I would have gone on the record as a Lib Dem, but I just can’t really square what’s happened in the last few years,” she says. And, in an ideal Giedroyc world, who should be prime minister? She pauses. Then, emphatically: “Mary Berry. Somebody with some good, honest, common sense. Maybe with some Labour advisers. A mixed Berry compote.” What role would Paul Hollywood take in the Berry government? “I supposed he’d have to be chief baker. Head baker. Kenneth Baker?” More seriously, as the daughter of a Polish refugee, Giedroyc worries about Nigel Farage’s rhetoric.

“I can’t take UKIP seriously,” she says. “I should, I must, it’s our duty to take them seriously, because they’re coming out with some really heinous old crap about immigration.” Giedroyc’s father, Michal, is now 86. He came to the UK after the Second World War, having been transported from eastern Poland to Siberia by the Russians. “I tend to look at it, maybe too much, through my dad’s eyes. He’s a very proud, upright, principled man who swore allegiance to the King when he came here in 1947. He respects this country so much, and what it gave him, and what it’s given his children.” Giedroyc is clearly devoted to her mother and father, who still live in Oxford. They are devout Catholics – a faith which, says Giedroyc, she also rediscovered after Florence was born. “I brought Flossie back from the hospital, I was feeling blue and mad, and I suddenly had this overwhelming sense that I was going to die. So it’s probably fear,” she says. “I would not describe myself as the best Catholic – I’m a bit of a cherry-picker. I like the community of it.

I probably go to church two Sundays out of four. My kids both had Catholic junior school education, which I’m really glad for – it taught them how to be compassionate, how to be kind.” And it is Giedroyc’s devotion to her family which made her take on her next TV project – a quiz show for Sky1 called Relatively Clever. It’s a sort of modern-day Ask the Family, with teams of four (two adults and two kids, but sometimes including uncles and grandparents as well as mums and dads) answering general knowledge questions. Giedroyc says that, if her own kids went on the show, “Flossie’s best subject would be literature, and Vita’s would be music. She’s well into her music. She drums. We found this brilliant thing on eBay, a little electronic thing that’s like playing a kit, but she can wear headphones. It’s saved our relationship with our neighbours.” As we wrap up, Giedroyc’s next engagement is to voice over a TV ad – the kind of commercial gigs that come thick and fast for Bake Off presenters. But her ambition is to write again, both a novel and a TV comedy-drama.

“I like writing a lot,” she says. And then her voice drops to a whisper: “And you don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to get out of your pyjamas. When I see women in tights and high shoes and made-up, at eight o’clock in the morning on the Tube, and I think they have to do it every day – I feel pain. I feel pain! It is life’s greatest privilege to be able to wear crap clothes to do one’s job, as a writer. What a privilege. Brilliant.” • Relatively Clever begins on Sky1 on Friday 27 March Mel Giedroyc reveals how she went from near bankruptcy to Bake Off stardom - Daily Record Entertainment Mel Giedroyc reveals how she went from near bankruptcy to Bake Off stardom FOLLOWING a decade in the wilderness and being forced to sell her house, the presenter is now balancing the Bake Off, chatshow Mel & Sue and new primetime show The Gift. Share Mel Giedroyc (Photo: BBC / Mark Bourdillon) Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email FIVE years ago, Mel Giedroyc was struggling to find work and agreed to do The Great British Bake Off for money. This week, as well as her daily STV daytime chat show Mel and Sue, she is presenting new primetime show The Gift with Matt Baker on Tuesday and next week will host The Great Comic Relief Bake Off. It’s a relief for the mum-of- two who almost a decade ago was facing a dried-up career and near bankruptcy with her husband Ben Morris, a TV director and teacher, after borrowing £500,000 to buy a big house. Video Loading Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Share this video Watch Next However, despite clearly being back in TV’s good books, Mel, 46, doesn’t sound like she’s sure of her own deft touch as a presenter. Although ditzy to comedy partner Sue’s more blunt persona, Mel is actually warm and easy going – perfect for The Gift. Mel knows all about second chances. She said: “It was an honour to be asked to do The Gift.

“The producers took a risk asking me because, coming from a comedy background, I am not known for this kind of highly-charged, emotional show.” The Gift hosts Mel Giedroyc and Matt Baker (Photo: BBC/ Wall to Wall) Mel met Sue Perkins at Cambridge and they launched their comedy career at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1993. They wrote gags for French and Saunders and Absolutely Fabulous and in 1997 were given their own show, Light Lunch on Channel 4. Late Lunch followed in 1999 and presenting Channel 4’s RI:SE breakfast show in 2003. By then the duo’s ads with Kingsmill bankrolled the family but there were too many eggs in the one basket and Mel had to sell the house, first moving into a rented place before the family’s modest two-bedroom flat in Ealing, London. She admitted: “I was stone broke.” While Mel was struggling, Sue was developing her own career on shows Edwardian Supersize Me, The Supersizers Go, Maestro and A Band for Britain. It also didn’t help that work had dried up for Mel, who is mum to Florence and Vita.

She added: “When you’ve had a baby in showbiz, people think you’ve died”. Not any more. It’s clear many now realise Mel is more than just a funny girl. The Great Comic Relief Bake Off is back on Wednesday with Sue going solo as presenter as celebs Joanna Lumley, Jennifer Saunders, Dame Edna Everage and Lulu show their baking powers to judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. They will be the first celebs to do battle and the show will continue until Red Nose Day on Friday, March 13. Mel will host the second show on February 18, which has Jonathan Ross, Gok Wan, Abbey Clancy and Zoe Sugg, better known as internet fashion sensation Zoella, in the kitchen. Jonathan Ross, Mary Berry, Zoe Sugg, Paul Hollywood, Abbey Clancy, Gok Wan and Mel Giedroyc, who are taking part in the The Great Comic Relief Bake Off. (Photo: BBC/PA Wire) Ed Byrne and Jo Brand will then separately host the remaining two episodes, featuring the likes of Victoria Wood, Alexa Chung and Sarah Brown. Mel claimed that one of the celeb cooks left her not smacking her lips but smacking her bottom... on the toilet.

She said: “The celebrity bakers all did very well. Well, some of them did a little bit better than others. “I ate one of the baker’s profiteroles and spent two hours on the loo. I’m a good 2lb thinner though, so it’s quite good in some ways. I might eat more of said person’s bakes.” While it will all be about the celebs and their cooking, what binds the Bake Off isn’t egg yolk but Mel and Sue. To them the secret of their chemistry is the same as it is for Ant & Dec. Mel said: “People can see that our friendship is real and they’re drawn to it. Ant & Dec have that thing, definitely, and Vic and Bob. “And we just rip the living hell out of each other 24/7. We laugh all the time.” The giggles, those controversial innuendos and floppy cakes are far from Mel’s thoughts though on her new show The Gift. More tears than trifles, it follows the extraordinary real-life stories of people who missed the chance to say thank you or sorry when it really mattered. It also highlights lives that were saved by incredible acts of bravery or hearts broken by past mistakes.

Mel spent most of the time working on The Gift in tears and not eating like on Bake Off. “Bake Off can get emotional but The Gift is in a whole different league,” she said. “I had to try not to cry too much. Nobody likes a presenter melting in a self-indulgent puddle of tears. “I brim about twice a day and have been known to cry at TV insurance ads, so holding back the tears was often really difficult.” For various reasons, the people featured in the series have lost touch with the person they’re desperate to find. View gallery Mel and Matt travel the world – from the remotest parts of Africa to the Hollywood Hills – searching for them. In the opening episode, we meet Patrick Provis who, as a young man in the Welsh Guards, was ambushed by the IRA 27 years ago and left for dead. He never got to say thank you to the fellow soldier who disobeyed orders and rescued him. The Gift tracked down Alex Cary, the man who saved Patrick’s life and is now a producer on American hit show Homeland. The programme also features a grandmother Grace Bates who has spent most of her life wanting to apologise to her first love Hermann Bosche.

But don’t think The Gift is a sugar-coated Surprise Surprise. Mel said: “The Gift doesn’t deal with the neat, tie-me-up-with-a-bow kind of stories. “They are grittier, messier and more real. Not all of them have a completely happy resolution. “You are following people and events which can be more difficult, more elusive, and therefore harder to pin down. “This has required patience and time – the show took a long time to put together. I’m really proud of The Gift. There are stories we can all relate to – a first love that went wrong, a person who bullied us at school, a kind person we took for granted. “There are stories set against dramatic backdrops – Kenya, The Troubles in Northern Ireland, America. It’s unique. “Out of the micro detail of life – small simple acts and words like “thank you” and “sorry” – come these vast, powerful, life-changing stories.” The Gift starts on Tuesday, BBC1, at 9pm.

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off starts on Wednesday, BBC1, at 8pm Test your knowledge with our quick quiz: Question -1 of 5Score -0 of 0 According to his daughter, which celebrity chef is the real naked chef? Sue Perkins - TV.com Sue Perkins 9/22/1969, East Dulwich, London, England, UK Birth Name Mel & Sue, Mel and Sue 7.0 Sue Perkins is best known for been the half of the British comedy duo "Mel & Sue", where she met with her fellow comedian Melanie "Mel" Giedroyc, while they where students in Cambridge University comedic group "The Footlights".

Credits S 2: Ep 2 Alex 1/9/17 S 1: Ep 7 Christmas Special 12/21/16 S 1: Ep 6 Episode 6 2/8/16 S 1: Ep 5 Episode 5 2/1/16 S 1: Ep 4 Episode 4 1/25/16 S 1: Ep 9 Episode 9 10/22/11 S 1: Ep 8 Episode 8 10/8/11 S 1: Ep 7 Episode 7 10/1/11 S 1: Ep 6 Episode 6 5/28/11 S 1: Ep 5 Episode 5 5/21/11 S 3: Ep 6 Lucy Porter, Robin Ince 7/1/09 S 3: Ep 5 Giles Coren, Josie Long 6/24/09 S 3: Ep 4 Alistair McGowan, Nicholas Parsons 6/17/09 S 3: Ep 3 Dave Gorman, Robin Ince

 6/10/09 S 3: Ep 2 Frank Skinner, John O'Farrell 6/3/09 S 2: Ep 408 show #408 12/19/03 S 2: Ep 407 show #407 12/18/03 S 2: Ep 165 16 December 2003 12/16/03 S 2: Ep 160 17th November 2003 11/17/03 S 2: Ep 372 show #372 10/29/03 S 2: Ep 124 show #295 7/10/03 S 2: Ep 117 show #288 7/1/03 S 2: Ep 110 show #281 6/20/03 S 2: Ep 89 show #259 5/22/03 S 2: Ep 88 show #258 5/

21/03 S 2: Ep 9 Series 2 - Sue Evicted 11/28/02 S 2: Ep 8 Series 2 - Episode 8 11/27/02 S 2: Ep 7 Series 2 - Anne Evicted 11/26/02 S 2: Ep 4 Alec Guinness 8/14/01 S 2: Ep 3 Alfred Hitchcock 8/7/01 S 1: Ep 6 John Thomson, Jono Coleman 12/18/99 S 1: Ep 5 Michael Winner, Vas Blackwood 12/13/99 S 1: Ep 4 Pauline McLynn, Amanda Holden 12/6/99 S 1: Ep 3 Gary Olsen, Patsy Palmer 11/29/99 S 1: Ep 2 Christopher Biggins, Julia Carling 11/22/99 S 2: Ep 18 Episode 36 3/3/99 S 2: Ep 17 Episode 35 2/2

4/99 S 2: Ep 16 Episode 34 2/17/99 S 2: Ep 15 Episode 33 2/10/99 S 2: Ep 14 Episode 32 2/3/99 S 2: Ep 91 Not Goodbye...

But Au Revoir 2/27/98 S 2: Ep 87 That's Entertainment 2/23/98 S 10: Ep 9 Jeopardy 11/9/12 S 9: Ep 7 Incomprehensible 10/21/11 S 46: Ep 60 14th December 2001 12/14/01 S 46: Ep 59 13th December 2001 12/13/01 S 46: Ep 58 12th December 2001 12/12/01 S 46: Ep 57 11th December 2001 12/11/01 S 46: Ep 56 10th December 2001 12/10/01 S 2: Ep 8 Episode 8 6/7/15 S 6: Ep 10 8 March 2014 3/8/14 S 1: Ep 

2 Episode 2 11/5/12 S 10: Ep 4 Jack and Jill 10/5/12 S 10: Ep 2 Jam, Jelly and Juice 9/22/12 S 8: Ep 2 H Anatomy 9/24/10 S 7: Ep 13 Gothic 2/19/10 S 2: Ep 2 Ho Chi Minh Trail 7/15/12 S 1: Ep 1 Alaska 9/4/11 S 1: Ep 4 Episode 1.4 2/27/12 S 6: Ep 4 Episode 70 10/26/09 S 4: Ep 117 Wednesday 17th June 2009 6/17/09 S 8: Ep 12 RND 2009 - Funny For Money 3/13/09 S 1: Ep 11 Jason Byrne, Sue Perkins 1/19/09 S 1: Ep 6 Sue Perkins, Andrew Maxwell 12/1/08

 S 9: Ep 42 Tuesday 12th August 8/12/08 S 2: Ep 9 Heston's Perfect Christmas Dinner 12/19/07 S 1: Ep 4 Episode 4 7/15/07 S 3: Ep 1 Live Launch - Rowland Expelled 3/3/07 S 13: Ep 7 Eve Pollard, Sue Perkins 5/23/97 S 1: Ep 9 Episode 9 9/21/06 S 1: Ep 2 Episode 2 4/29/06 S 2: Ep 5 Episode 11 2/6/06 S 2: Ep 3 Episode 2.3 2/3/06 S 1: Ep 4 Episode 4 6/24/05 S 1: Ep 8 LeSage 7/13/03 S 3: Ep 10 January 23rd 2003 1/23/03 S 2: Ep 2 October 22nd 20

02 10/22/02 S 1: Ep 6 The Big Fight 12/26/02 S 1: Ep 2 Making Good (2) 11/28/02 S 1: Ep 1 Marooned (1) 11/28/02 S 3: Ep 9 Celebrity Reunion [CBB2] 12/2/02 S 3: Ep 8 CBBLB Episode 7 11/29/02 S 16: Ep 39 Broken Hearts 6/22/02 S 1: Ep 3 I Love 1992 9/1/01 S 1: Ep 1 1-6 8/16/01 S 2: Ep 2 Big Break 4/30/01 S 6: Ep 8 Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins 2/26/01 S 1: Ep 1 I Love 1980 1/13/01 S 1: Ep 2 Sue Perkins, Griff Rhys Jones 1/

12/01 S 1: Ep 5 Saturday Night Diva 2/5/99 S 1: Ep 5 Episode 5 3/15/98 S 1: Ep 3 Episode 3 4/25/95 S 1: Ep 0 Pilot Cameo (1) S 1: Ep 82 Celebrity Special 12/24/00 S 1: Ep 3 2000 (1) 7/1/00 Become a contributor Important: You must only upload images which you have created yourself or that you are expressly authorised or licensed to upload.

By clicking "Publish", you are confirming that the image fully complies with TV.com’s Terms of Use and that you own all rights to the image or have authorization to upload it. Please read the following before uploading Do not upload anything which you do not own or are fully licensed to upload. The images should not contain any sexually explicit content, race hatred material or other offensive symbols or images. Remember: Abuse of the TV.com image system may result in you being banned from uploading images or from the entire site – so, play nice and respect the rules! Choose background: Mel and Sue: Can the much-loved Bake Off double act resurrect the chatshow? | The Independent Features Mel and Sue: Can the much-loved Bake Off double act resurrect the chatshow? They're the best thing about 'The Great British Bake Off'. Now Mel and Sue are going back to their roots with a new chat show.

They talk to James Rampton about cake and critics Monday 5 January 2015 18:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Culture Sister act: Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins in their new daily chat show, 'Mel and Sue' When Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins were first offered the job of presenting The Great British Bake Off in 2010, they weren't convinced. "We turned it down," says Perkins. Why would you want to do a show about cakes?" The duo, who have been best friends since meeting at Cambridge University nearly three decades ago, were eventually persuaded to have a bash at The Bake Off. They had no idea what a phenomenon the show would become. "The allure was that we'd get to work together again for the first time since 2002," continues Perkins, 45. "We'd both gone through tough times. We're not the best at planning our careers." The programme, in which Giedroyc and Perkins and the judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood winnow 12 amateur bakers down to one winner, has won numerous awards, including two Baftas.

The finale of the last series, the first since the show's transfer from BBC2 to BBC1, netted 12.29 million viewers – unheard-of for a cookery programme and the highest figure for a non-sporting event last year. Its success has helped the pair obtain other high-profile work; Perkins recently presented the BBC2 travelogue The Mekong River, while this spring Giedroyc is hosting Relatively Clever, a new quiz show for Sky 1. A large part of the show's appeal lies in the effortless chemistry that crackles between Giedroyc and Perkins. They have a symbiotic relationship, enjoying the easy familiarity, ceaseless mutual mickey-taking and ability to finish each other's sentences that come from 26 years of close friendship. Meeting them in their West London production office, it is obvious they go as well together as apple crumble and custard – or Baked Alaska and dustbin.

The best TV to watch in 2015 The best TV to watch in 2015 1/13 Game of Thrones BBC 3/13 Fortitude A murder mystery set in a close-knit Arctic Circle community, with an impressive ensemble cast -Sky Atlantic, January Sky Atlantic Phoebe Fox, James Norton and Lydia Lynch in ‘Life in Squares’ BBC 9/13 Mel & Sue chat show ITV, January 10/13 Mad Men, Series 7, Part II Sky Atlantic, Spring ©Lionsgate 11/13 Dementiaville This series of documentaries explores both the heart-breaking experiences of those with dementia and a ground-breaking new approach to their care - Channel 4, Summer Georgie Scott/Age UK 2013 12/13 Morning Has Broken More than a decade since Nighty Night established Julia Davis’s reputation for caustic character comedy, she’s back with a new creation on Channel 4 BBC 13/13 Cucumber/Banana Sixteen years after Queer as Folk, Russell T Davies returns with two interlinked series about gay life in Manchester on Channel 4 c.Showtime/Everett/REX

 The pair are now parlaying their relationship into a new daily chat show, Mel and Sue.

The guests on the first show are comedian Jennifer Saunders and choirmaster Gareth Malone. It will revive memories of their much-loved chat show, Light Lunch (subsequently rebranded Late Lunch), which ran on Channel 4 in 1997 and 1998. Giedroyc, 46, who is married to TV director Ben Morris and has two young daughters, says: "You get to know the patterns of the way someone speaks. You know when to chip in and when to stay quiet. There is a horrific over-familiarity which is second nature to us. It was there from the beginning. It's brilliant." The pair reveal that their chat show will feature several innovations, including live calls from the public. "We will have a hotline to Paul Hollywood, Mary Berry and our mums," laughs Perkins. "The phone will be hidden underneath a casserole like in Chief O'Hara's office in Batman. Our mums would be so terse. My mum would say, 'I don't know that I like your outfit.'" There will also be a cook on every episode, but, as Perkins is quick to point out, "It won't be a celebrity chef.

As on Bake Off, it's about the democratisation of brilliance. The idea that only the overpaid, designated few are capable of brilliance is ridiculous." If fronting a daily chat show gets too much, Perkins has come up with a neat concept. "I had the idea of franchising out the Mel and Sue name, so we don't even have to be there. So one day it could be Mel Sykes and Su Pollard and the next Melvyn Hayes and Aung San Suu Kyi." Picking up the baton, Giedroyc says: "Nobody really would care. The name would live on without us. It would be like Brad from Neighbours, who was played by three different actors. Or it could be like Doctor Who. We could do the thing at the end of the series where we lie down, go fuzzy and regenerate as Mel B and Susan Boyle or Melvyn Bragg and Sue from Sooty – that's an episode of In Our Time they've never broadcast." Of course, this chat show might never have been commissioned but for the immense popularity of The Bake Off. So just why did the idea of a TV baking competition in a tent catch fire? "I don't know," says Perkins.

"All the show consists of is us eating our way through a mountain of carbohydrates while firing off sexual innuendos. That's a specialist service that I offer as an extra in my relationships. The show is basically great fun. And as long as it's fun and the audience like it, we'll be there." "What's not to love really?" Giedroyc chips in. "The Bake Off taps into nostalgic feelings about your mum baking in the kitchen. It's a big ruddy comfort blanket, and you get attached to the bakers. It also genuinely has a good heart." Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins in their 'Light Lunch' days (ITV/REX) Perkins, whose off-screen partner is TV presenter Anna Richardson, adds: "The timing was very good, too. It was a perfect storm. When The Bake Off first appeared, people had had enough of cynical, harder-edged TV – that theatre-of-cruelty style is quite boring.

We were in the midst of recession, and it harked back to another time of recession, the 1950s, an era of make-do and mend and back to basics." Giedroyc thinks their eagerness to avoid the more sneering attitude of many reality TV shows helped boost the popularity of The Bake Off. "At first, the show was harsher in tone. But one thing we brought to it is a sense of kindness and protecting the bakers. It's all about the bakers. Twelve bakers are whittled down to one, so it's like an Agatha Christie novel basically, but set in a patisserie. And Then There Were No Cakes, with Mary Berry as Marple and Paul Hollywood as Poirot. Sue and I are Hastings and the other one." What's the secret to their long partnership? "It's very sisterly. We know each other as well as sisters do," says Giedroyc. "We've known each other almost as long as our own sisters. And we never bicker. We've only ever had one row – in full New Romantic costumes. I can't remember what it was even about; we were probably both in a bad mood.

But I do remember that Sue was dressed as Adam Ant, and I was dressed as a member of Spandau Ballet." "We didn't enunciate anything major," Perkins recollects. "It was more of a light seethe, swiftly followed by absolute hilarity – 'You're dressed as one of Spandau Ballet, and I'm Adam Ant.' That's the only time that it's happened in 26 years. So if you're looking for stories of rock'n'roll excess, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place." For all their current popularity, it has not always been cloudless skies for the double act. "We have our detractors. If we didn't, that would be weird. That would make me feel, 'Oh God, we must be really bland,'" says Giedroyc. "You have to have detractors." "We have been out of fashion", adds Perkins. "We're not very cool. If the fad is for cool, the phone is not going to ring for us. Although Mel says she looks very cool in her hessian smock." She adds: "We both went through dark times.

But our friendship has always endured, whatever the work situation." "We're like cave-aged cheese," Giedroyc reckons. "We taste better now." "Yes," says Perkins, taking the comic bait. "We ooze at the edges and have a slightly unpleasant odour." Perhaps they have enjoyed success precisely because they have never taken it for granted. "I still have a sense of 'I got away with that. Someone will find me out soon.' This business is fickle. You have very good patches and less good patches, but you learn to ride them out", says Giedroyc. "As long as you don't take yourself too seriously, you'll be fine. When you lose sight of that, you're in trouble." About their new show, Perkins says simply: "We'll have fun and hope it's contagious. Anybody who doesn't enjoy this job should be ashamed of themselves. It's an absolute gift." "It's not like working really", says Giedroyc. "It's absurd to say that it's a job.

It's just the two of us messing about." 'Mel and Sue' starts on Monday at 4pm on ITV Mel and Sue return as ringmasters of Bake Off tent | Television & radio | The Guardian The Guardian profile Mel and Sue return as ringmasters of Bake Off tent Comic pair prepare to serve up mix of innuendo and comfort on reality show that is ‘antithesis of that kind of Britain’s Got Talent honk’ Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins are ‘two intelligent women having fun and there is very little of that on TV’. Photograph: JABPromotions/Rex Friday 31 July 2015 09.30 EDT Last modified on Thursday 11 August 2016 06.16 EDT Close This article is 1 year old When Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins were first offered the job of presenting The Great British Bake Off , they turned it down. “Neither Sue nor I thought it would work,” Giedroyc said last year. “Because it didn’t, on paper. A show about baking? What?” Early reviews suggested they might have been right.

“I didn’t want to put my head in the oven at the start, but I did by the end,” said one critic. The Guardian asked: “Once you’ve seen one person cream butter and sugar together, haven’t you seen them all?” The answer, it turned out, was a resounding no, and five years on from its unheralded debut on BBC2 The Great British Bake Off - since transferred to BBC1 - is now the biggest programme on British television, back for its sixth series next week . Filmed in a tent in the grounds of a Berkshire country house, Giedroyc and Perkins flit around like ringmasters serving up one innuendo after another as a dozen contestants attempt to impress the judges, national treasure Mary Berry and baking pin-up Paul Hollywood . Last year’s final, won by Nancy Birtwhistle, was watched by more than 13 million viewers , the second biggest show of 2014 , beaten only by England’s calamitous football World Cup defeat by Uruguay. The pair are understood to earn between £100,000 and £150,000 a series.

Seeking to explain the show’s success, Perkins described it as the “antithesis of that kind of Britain’s Got Talent honk. We hug the living shit out of [the contestants]”. Giedroyc likened it to a “big ruddy comfort blanket”. Bake Off’s Mel and Sue: It’s just a show about cakes – but it means a lot to people Read more Jay Rayner, the food critic and TV presenter, says: “We’re watching something our parents did when we were kids, it’s warm and comforting. The chemistry of the four people involved, led by Mel and Sue, is vital. You don’t feel anyone is about to be sacrificed on the altar of reality TV.” If the show was an unexpected success - it took the producers five years of pitching before it was picked up - then so was the return of Giedroyc and Perkins, or Mel and Sue as they are known, to primetime telly.

Friends since their days at Cambridge University (“She was drunk and was sick on me,” Perkins recalled of their first meeting) the pair sprang to fame on Channel 4’s Light Lunch, an irreverent mixture of cooking, comedy and chat that changed the face of daytime TV in the late 1990s. But within a few years the pair had gone their separate ways. Light Lunch - which became Late Lunch, in a new teatime slot - ran out of steam, an ITV panel game, Casting Couch, lasted six episodes and their stint presenting Channel 4’s ill-fated breakfast show, RI:SE, didn’t last much longer. Giedroyc, now 47, got married, had children and wrote books (“When you have a baby in showbiz, people think you’ve died,” she said later), while Perkins, 45, did stand-up, appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, and became a regular on TV and radio panel shows. Sebastian Scott, co-creator and executive producer of Light Lunch, remembers how he was “blown away” by their audition for the Channel 4 show.

“They didn’t know very much about cooking but they took on whatever was put in front of them and did so brilliantly.” “What really came across was their great rapport with each other and ability to make things which are possibly banal very funny. Probably their first choice in life was not to be presenters on a daytime cookery show, but they used their own style of humour to make it their own and turn it into a hit.” One episode featured actor Alison Steadman playing “cauliflower football”: kicking vegetables at a goal defended by Mel and Sue with oven gloves and a baking tray. Their appetite for double entendres on Bake Off - which prompted a complaint to the BBC’s Points of View that they get “smuttier and smuttier, and it is totally unnecessary” - was already evident at Light Lunch when word came down from on high at Channel 4 that there were too many references to “tossing a salad”. “Mel comes across as slightly more user friendly while Sue makes sure you understand her intellectual credentials,” says Scott.

“They are equally clever, but they use their humour and knowledge in different ways.” Great British Bake Off: new contestants poised to serve up sixth series Read more Their success prompted comparisons with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, for whom they contributed scripts and appeared as extras on their BBC1 sketch show. A more fitting analogy may be Ant and Dec, who play a similar role on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, mediating between the contestants and the judges, and adding a vital extra ingredient - humour. Emma Hardy, the managing director of Princess Productions, the company that made Light Lunch and their ITV chatshow, Mel and Sue, which launched earlier this year, says: “The key thing about them is that they are genuine friends, and only Ant and Dec in the current climate emulate that. People want to see friends on TV. They are two intelligent women having fun and there is very little of that [on TV].” Giedroyc has suggested they were like the Jim Carrey movie Dumb and Dumber. “Me being the Dumber part and Sue trying to come across as knowing what she’s talking about, but in fact not really knowing either.” The pair met in 1988 at a comedy gig at Cambridge.

Both privately educated, Giedroyc was at Trinity College and Perkins at New Hall and both became members of the Cambridge Footlights where their contemporaries included the Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw. “It’s not just that they are funny; it’s what Miranda Hart has, that sort of lovability, a connection with the public,” says Bradshaw. They hit the comedy circuit, wrote for Radio 4’s topical comedy show Weekending and took their act to Edinburgh, where they were nominated for the best newcomers prize in 1993. But early acclaim failed to generate what they really wanted - a sketch show on the BBC - and they were £10,000 in debt and on the verge of quitting when Light Lunch came calling in 1997. Even then they were reluctant, recalled Giedroyc. “We said, ‘Are you kidding? We’re stand-up comedians.’ To us, daytime TV was cheesy, awful. We went to the audition and took the mickey out of each other and the format … I don’t know how we got away with it.” But in subsequent years they failed to enjoy the success apart that they did together.

Giedroyc starred with Ardal O’Hanlon in Ben Elton’s BBC1 sitcom Blessed in 2005, but it lasted only one series. Such was the slump in her fortunes, compounded by the loss of the pair’s lucrative ad campaign for Kingsmill bread, that she had to sell the family home. “We had a ridiculous mortgage on a house we couldn’t afford,” said Giedroyc, who is married to TV director Ben Morris, the brother of Brass Eye satirist Chris and War Horse director, Tom. When Bake Off came along she was “completely upfront about the fact I did it for the money”. Perkins had her own sitcom two years ago, BBC2’s Heading Out , about a lesbian vet, but it too lasted only one series. Like its lead character, Perkins is gay, dating TV presenter Anna Richardson, and has described her sexuality as “only about the 47th most interesting thing about me”. Perkins’ re-emergence began in 2007 , when she starred alongside Giles Coren on BBC4’s Edwardian Supersize Me, in which the pair spent a week on the diet of a wealthy Edwardian couple while wearing period clothing.

It was a hit and spawned a 12-part sequel, The Supersizers Go … on BBC2. Coren, a close friend of Perkins - she read Chaucer at his wedding - says: “Sue was in the wilderness, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me saying. She is obsessively modest and downplaying of everything. I always used to insist on going first class, and Sue would go and sit in standard [class] with the crew because she didn’t want them to think we were different.” He says she is a “lot more savage and funny and un-PC” than the Bake Off format allows. “Mel and Sue are enormously talented performers in second gear on a baking show,” he says. “They are much more interesting personalities than Paul Hollywood or Mary Berry. No one would notice if you swapped Mary for a different old lady and Paul is just a baker.” Bake Off’s Paul and Mary: We just work in a tent, judging bread Read more Mel and Sue’s ITV daytime show earlier this year failed to repeat the success of Light Lunch. “They are slightly constrained by Bake Off and equally constrained by daytime TV,” says Coren.

“Someone should put them on at 11pm with a martini and a ball gown and they will cut loose.” Away from Bake Off, Perkins was last week nominated for a Grierson award for her BBC2 documentary, The Mekong River with Sue Perkins . Earlier this year she quit Twitter after receiving death threats when she was touted as a replacement for Jeremy Clarkson on BBC2’s Top Gear, which she said was “utterly fabricated”. It was the then BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow who had the idea of reuniting Mel and Sue for Bake Off. “It was quite a big decision for them and they were nervous about it, even when we made the first series, but they did a terrific job from the start,” says Richard McKerrow, creative director of the programme’s producer, Love Productions. “They are like the MCs who run it - they write their own scripts and their own jokes - and it is authentic because they have a past and a way of relating to each other. “They get the show and they give it a wit, and it is therefore watched by people who aren’t interested in baking.

It’s like Top Gear - you will always get the car viewers, but how do you get the people who are not interested in cars?” The new series of Bake Off is understood to be the second of a new three-year deal signed with the BBC when the show switched to BBC1 last year. “When you start guessing what people want from it then you’re finished,” Perkins told the Observer last month. “For as long as it lasts, which might only be for this series, we’ll keep doing it.” Born Mel Giedroyc, 5 June, 1968, Epsom Sue Perkins, 22 September 1969, London Career Sprang to fame on Light Lunch but collaborated with less success on ITV and Channel 4 breakfast programme RI:SE.

Reunited for The Great British Bake Off in 2010 but continued with solo projects such as BBC2 documentary The Mekong River (Perkins) and BBC1’s Vertigo Road Trip (Giedroyc) High point The Great British Bake Off was the most watched entertainment programme of 2014 with a high of more than 13 million viewers Low point Casting Couch, an ITV celebrity panel show in 1999 about “people’s obsession with celebrity and the outrageous demands stars make” Mel says “We’ve known each other for so long. It’s like having a family member … who you get on with and actually like.” Sue says “We’ve had lots of ups and downs so we don’t link our career success to our personal happiness.” They say “Will you please behave!” – Mary Berry Sue Perkins - Bio, Facts, Family | Famous Birthdays Sue Perkins Virgo Comedian#17 About Initially known for her work on the radio comedy program Mel and Sue, this British entertainer later hosted BBC2's The Great British Bake Off. Before Fame In 1990, she earned an English degree from the University of Cambridge.

Trivia She and fellow television host Susanna Reid attended London's Croham Hurst School at the same time. Family Life At different times in her life, she was romantically involved with comedienne Rhona Cameron, television personality Emma Kennedy , and visual artist Kate Williams.

Question: How are comedians Giedroyc and Perkins better known?
Answer: MEL AND SUE